Mönchengladbach, Bradley experience improved play in Bundesliga.

(Thursday, November 5, 2009) - With improved play, things are looking up Borussia Mönchengladbach and its United States midfielder Michael Bradley in the German Bundesliga.

Bradley has returned to the starting lineup and he went the distance in Moenchengladbach's 3-2 victory at Hamburg. This followed a good defensive effort in a 0-0 home draw with visiting FC Köln. Moenchengladbach dominated the match, but simply could not score. Bradley had six shots on the day, four coming in the final 10 minutes.

U.S. defender Steve Cherundolo and Hannover 96 have looked strong in back, evidenced by 1-0 shutouts in their last two outings.

On Saturday, Cherundolo was in his usual place at right back in Hannover's 1-0 triumph at Cologne. Before that, Hannover held on to defeat visiting Stuttgart 1-0 in a match filled with fouls and seven yellow cards.

Hannover managed only five shots, with their only shot on goal -- a 31st -minute tap-in by Didier Ya Konan -- finding net. The Hannover defense was solid and the one-goal decision was enough to beat beleaguered Stuttgart, whose coach Markus Babbel looks to be in deep trouble.

In the 2. Bundesliga, U.S. striker Kenny Cooper has been seeing duty as a late substitute recently 1860 Munich. On Saturday, he played the final 15 minutes of a 1-0 loss to Kaiserslautern.

A week earlier, he entered in the 66th minute of a 3-2 setback at FSV Frankfurt. In that match, American forward Matt Taylor was not dressed for Frankfurt. Last weekend, he did make it to the bench, but not onto the field on a 1-0 loss at Union Berlin.

American Luis Robles was the backup keeper for Kaiserslautern in its shutout of Munich and a 2-0 loss to Fortuna.

American goalkeeper David Yelldell did not dress for TuS Koblenz's 3-0 loss to Duisburg after suffering an injury in training. This followed his strong effort in a 2-1 road win at Greuther Furth.

Bocanegra returns from red-card suspension

In France, U.S. defender Carlos Bocanegra and and Stade Rennes split a pair of one-sided matches.

First, Rennese experienced its best match of the season in a strong defensive effort in a 3-0 triumph over league-leading Montpellier. Bocanegra came back from a one-match, red-card suspension and helped Rennes withstand an early push by Montpellier after which the home side settled in and took over the match.

That was followed by a clear letdown and a 3-0 loss to Valenciennes at home. Bocanegra picked up a yellow card in the 56th minute.

In Scotland, American midfielder DaMarcus Beasley saw action for the first time this year for Glasgow Rangers, which defeated Dundee 3-1 in a Scottish League Cup quarterfinal. Beasley started and went 75 minutes.

In league matches, Beasley he has been dressing, but not playing, and that was also the case in Rangers' 1-1 draw in Europa League play at Unirea Urziceni of Romania.

American Dominick Cervi continues as Glasgow Celtic's backup keeper, watching from the bench Celtic's 3-0 victory over Kilmarnock and 2-1 nod at Hamilton.

In Portugal, U.S. midfielder Freddy Adu dressed, but didn't play in Belenenses' 1-1 tie at Porto. In the previous game, he didn't dress for a 0-0 draw with Olhanense.

In Ireland, former Providence College keeper Chris Konopka helped Sporting Fingal of the second-tier First Division defeat Bray Wanderers of the Premier League 4-2 in a FAI Ford Cup semifinal. Sporting will face Sligo Rovers in the final in Tallaght Stadium.

Fingal went ahead 3-0 after 22 minutes and cruised to an easy decision, the club's biggest win in its young, two-year history. The newly-formed club was inserted into the First Division as a replacement for financially strapped Kilkenny City rather than having to work its way up through the non-league A Championship

In a Norwegian Tippeligaen 2009 finale, American midfielder, Mikkel Diskerud back from the U.S. participation in the Under-20 World Cup, went 89 minutes of Stabaek's 2 - 0 victory over relegation-bound Bodo\Glimt.

In the 73rd minute, Diskerud sent a perfect cross to Daniel Nannskog for Stabaek's second goal.

American defenders Hunter Freeman and Clarence Goodson, former Atlantic Coast Conference rivals at Virginia and Maryland, respectively, both played 90 minutes for IK Start, which ended its season with a pair of triumphs.

Goodson scored a goal in the season ending 2-0 decision over Valerenga. Both played well a week earlier when Start defeated host Tromso 3-1 at Alfheim Stadion. Freeman drew a yellow card in the 60th minute.

With American Troy Perkins in goal, Valerenga's late-season run came to an ignominious end with a pair of setbacks. Prior to the 2-0 loss to start was a 2-1 losing effort to Sandefjord.

Against Sandefjord, Perkins was victimized by a penalty kick in the first half, In the 63rd minute, after making a sensational save on Orjan Royrane, Erik Mjelde headed the rebound over a defender to himself and drove the decisive tally past Perkins.

If Valerenga IF Oslo won its final two matches, it would have had an outside chance of making it into a qualifying round for Europe competition next season. Instead, the team (10-10-10, 40 points) finished seventh in the 16-team league after facing relegation a third through the season.

American keeper Tyrel Lacey watched from the FC Lyn Oslo bench in a 5-0 loss to Fredrikstad and a 4-1 setback at Odd Grenland Skien.

In Denmark's Superliga, there were a number of Americans on the field when FC Nordsjælland traveled to AGF Aarhus and won 2-0 on October 26.

American defender Michael Parkhurst went the distance for Nordsjaelland, which got goals in the 52nd and 82nd minutes. U.S. midfielder Benny Feilhaber started for Aarhus and went 87 minutes.

American forward Jeremiah White came off the Aarhus bench in the 65th minute.

On Monday, Feilhaber played 75 minutes Aarhus' 2-2 tie with Midtjylland. White played the final nine minutes.

Parkhurst went the distance in Nordsjælland's back line in a 1-0 loss Sunday to Brøndby. He also went the distance in an easy 5-1 Danish Cup victory over semi-professional AIK 65 Strøby.

American defender Danny Califf has reportedly been told by coach Allan Kuhn that he has no future with Midtjylland and he did not play in the draw at Aarhus or a 2-1 victory over Koge.

American attacker Marcus Tracy got a rare start for Aalborg AB and played 66 minutes in a 1-1 draw Monday at Odense. A week earlier, he played the final nine minutes in a 2-1 loss to Brøndby.